On January 13, News 4 reported that a San Antonio rollover accident sent three women to the hospital in serious condition. The accident happened when the women were traveling south on Interstate 37 when the car went off the road shoulder. The driver lost control of the vehicle and overcorrected, resulting in the vehicle flipping over at least one time.

News 4 indicated in their article about the accident that the driver of the vehicle may have fallen asleep, causing her to veer off the road shoulder and precipitating the accident.  If this is the case, this drowsy driving crash has occurred at a time when our San Antonio auto accident lawyers are more concerned than ever before about drowsy driving.

New Study Increases Drowsy Driving Concerns

Our San Antonio auto accident lawyers are more concerned than ever about the serious public health problem of drowsy driving because of a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC conducted the study by asking 147,000 residents across 19 states and in D.C. to answer a detailed telephone survey. Questions on the survey included asking for details about both driving habits and about sleep habits. The survey’s purpose was to determine more information about the problem of drowsy driving.

Unfortunately, the CDC reports illustrated that drowsy driving is entirely too common. According to the results of the study:

• An average of 4.2 percent of all of the drivers who were asked the survey questions indicated that in the 30 days prior to taking the survey, they’d fallen asleep or nodded off as they were driving. Nodding off is defined, for purposes of the study, as closing the eyes even briefly in sleep.
• Younger drivers were the worst offenders when it comes to drowsy driving. 6.3 percent of drivers ages 25-34 said they’d fallen asleep in the past 30 days when behind the wheel and 4.9 percent of 18-24 year olds admitted to doing the same. These numbers were much higher than the 1.7 percent of drivers 65 and up who admitted to dozing off.
• Drivers in Texas were, on average, more likely than drivers in other states to drive drowsy. 6.1 percent of Texans admitted to nodding off- more than any other state and significantly more than the lowest state of Oregon with only 2.5 percent of adult drivers there dozing while driving.

The Texas auto accident statistics are also bad news when it comes to evaluating the number of people driving drowsy in the state. In 2011, the Texas Department of Transportation listed driver fatigue or sleeping drivers as a contributing factor in 136 fatal car wrecks.

The Texas statistics, the new CDC study and even this most recent rollover accident all tell the same story- too many people are driving drowsy in Texas and these people are putting everyone in danger.

If you’ve been injured in an accident, contact the Herrera Law Firm at 800-455-1054 for a confidential consultation.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Car Accidents. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.